AL REPORT.

Turn-of-the-century Types

Indians Count On Justice, Grissom For Many Years

May 25, 1997|By Phil Rogers. and Phil Rogers covers the White Sox and the American League for the Tribune.

David Justice and Marquis Grissom were definitely in the right place at the right time. The Cleveland Indians needed to make a statement to their fans after reshaping a club that had been built around Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton and Carlos Baerga. That public relations move added up to a guaranteed $28 million for Justice and $25 million guaranteed for Grissom.

The size of the contracts--four years at $7 million a year for Justice; five years at $5 million a year for Grissom--was not that amazing. Rather it was the lack of leverage from these two former Atlanta Braves, along with the length of their deals, that is interesting. Justice, who averaged only 114 games in his seven seasons in Atlanta, will be 36 when his new deal expires after 2002 (there's an option for 2003). It wasn't as though he was about to become a free agent. The Indians, who traded Lofton and left-hander Alan Embree to Atlanta for Justice and Grissom, inherited an agreement that ran through next season.

Grissom will be 35 when his new deal expires after 2002 (he also has an option for 2003). He couldn't have become a free agent until after the 1999 season.

First baseman Jim Thome also cashed in on General Manager John Hart's largesse. Thome, who couldn't file for free agency until after next season, signed an extension that carries his contract through 2001. He received a $3.5 million signing bonus to augment his existing contract, which runs through 1998, and will earn $7 million a year in 1999, 2000 and 2001. The Indians have an option for 2002 at $7.5 million.

"Our experience has been when a player gets to the last year of his deal, then things become distracting," Hart said. "And when a player of Jimmy's talent goes out onto the free-agent market, someone is going to step up and pay him."

While the knee-jerk reaction was to compare last week's signings with the deals in 1992-94 that locked up players such as Lofton, Baerga and Sandy Alomar Jr., there's a significant difference. Those long-term contracts secured the future for young players--mostly buying out years of arbitration--while these bind the club to thirtysomething players.

Having been shut out by the cream of the 1997 free-agent crop--Belle, Roger Clemens, Alex Fernandez and John Smoltz among them--Hart swapped some future flexibility for some positive headlines. He's a man for the millennium. He is counting on Justice and Grissom being millennium men, too.

Ruben does Syracuse: Exiled to the minor leagues after the Cincinnati Reds released him, Ruben Sierra made a good impression during a short stay at Triple-A Syracuse. The erstwhile All-Star played six games there before being promoted to Toronto on Friday.

Larry Hisle, the Blue Jays' minor-league hitting instructor, said Sierra played hard and was a positive influence on the organization's prospects.

"He (was) hustling like a rookie," Hisle said. "If you didn't know who he is, you'd think he was another young kid trying to get up to the majors."

Toronto is Sierra's fifth major-league organization in the last three seasons. After being labeled a "village idiot" by Tony La Russa in Oakland, he spun through the New York Yankees and Detroit before starting this season in Cincinnati. He's only 31 but is running out of time to resurrect a career in which he had hit 111 home runs and driven in 470 runs before turning 25.

"I can't believe what happened to me," Sierra said, referring to his release. "They had to blame someone because they weren't winning. I was the victim. They gave me no warning. They just said, `Sorry.' "

No brats for Big Unit: Lou Piniella says he never again wants Randy Johnson to pitch at County Stadium in Milwaukee.

"Every time he pitches there, he has problems afterward," Piniella said.

Johnson won a 2-1 game at Milwaukee May 13. But he walked eight in a five-inning stint against Baltimore last Sunday, after which he complained about "stiffness in my whole body."

The Mariners are in a near-panic, as they are sunk if Johnson goes south. They lost by scores of 8-7, 11-9 and 18-3 last week, prompting Piniella to call it "the worst week of pitching that I've ever been associated with." He says his pitchers are tired.

That's a bad sign.

The voice of experience: While owner Carl Pohlad and club President Jerry Bell are threatening to move the Twins because the Minnesota Legislature adjourned without giving the Twins a new stadium, Paul Molitor just shrugs.

The Twins' designated hitter remembers years of similar posturing in Milwaukee, where the Brewers will play in a new stadium in 2000.

"I learned from being in Milwaukee that you can compare it to a poker game, where people don't show all their cards early and some people think other people are bluffing," Molitor said. "It has to kind of run its course."

Cramming for exams: It's 18 days and counting until AL pitchers are unleashed at the plate in the first interleague games. Strange things are going to happen.